Milford: Annual police shooting exercise now covers all first responders

Friday

Apr 25, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 25, 2014 at 12:03 PM

By Lindsay CorcoranDaily News Staff

MILFORD – It is a nightmare scenario – a shooter running around inside a school building, students injured or taken hostage. But Milford’s emergency responders will be ready after participating in their annual active shooter training this week.On Thursday, dozens of police, firefighters, dispatchers and EMTs gathered at Memorial Elementary School to participate in drills during one of three training sessions. More than 100 first responders working in Milford will receive the training.For the first time, firefighters and EMS personnel also participated in the normally police-focused training as new tactics for active shooter scenarios now place a higher focus on getting victims medical attention quicker."The tactics have evolved over the years as a result of shooting events where police officers are busy with the shooters while victims lay dying," said Police Chief Tom O’Loughlin. "Now, we’re bringing in firefighters and EMTs to ‘warm’ areas to help the victims."O’Loughlin said training all of the emergency responders together will avoid confusion and delays in a real emergency and make all of those responding comfortable in such a situation. Based on that same idea, even civilian dispatchers were included in this week’s training."While the police have been training for their part for a while, we’re hoping our guys will continue and advance," said Fire Chief John Touhey. He said the only reason firefighters have not undergone this type of training before is simply because no one had thought of it.The Milford Police Department has held active shooter training sessions for nearly 10 years, which O’Loughlin notes is ahead of the curve compared to other communities that started this type of training after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in 2012.The training on Thursday had one officer acting as the attacker, using an Airsoft pellet gun to simulate gunfire, and several volunteer teenagers acting as victims."The training includes scenarios where officers have to work in teams of one, two or four as they look for the shooter and clear and hold areas with victims," O’Loughlin said.Firefighters and EMTs practiced working on patients in the school hallways and transporting them to more secure locations. Police practiced protecting the medical personnel while taking them in to an active-shooter scenario.Contact Lindsay Corcoran at 508-634-7582 or lcorcoran@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @LacorcMDN.